Information Commissioner Orders Home Office to Disclose Data to ‘No-Deportations’

No-Deportations’ made an FOI request, 23 April: ’Number of people forcibly removed from the UK on Charter Flights (Escorts and Removals) Q1 January/February/March 2020’: Immigration Enforcement replied: Thank you for your Email of 23 April, in which you ask for information about Charter Flights in 2020. The information which you have requested is being considered under the exemption in section 31 of the FOIA, which relates to law enforcement. This is a qualified exemption, and to consider the public interest test fully we need to extend the 20-working day response period. We now aim to let you have a full response by Monday 22 June.

No response was forthcoming from Immigration Enforcement. A request from the Information Commissioner to the Home Office, to respond was ignored.

On the 14 September the ICO issued a formal decision notice, informing the Home Office, that they had failed to complete its deliberations on the balance of the public interest within a reasonable time and had therefore breached section 17(3) of the FOIA. Further: The Commissioner required the Home Office to take the following step to ensure compliance with the legislation. • Having confirmed that information is held within the scope of the request: either disclose the requested information or issue a refusal notice in accordance with the requirements of section 17 of the FOIA. The Home Office must take this step within 35 calendar days of the date of this decision notice. Failure to comply may result in the Commissioner making written certification of this fact to the High Court pursuant to section 54 of the Act and may be dealt with as a contempt of court.

8) On the same day, the Home Office complied with the ICO decision, disclosing to myself the information they held on deportation charter flights for Q1 January/February/March 2020.

Read more: https://is.gd/clKQPQ